After Taking Short-Notice Bout, Bryan Caraway Wondered What He’d Got Himself Into

“I couldn’t really turn it down since I was pressuring them to get
me a fight,” Caraway told the
Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show. “I kind of felt
obligated to take it, although Johnny Bedford is one of my good
buddies from [‘The Ultimate Fighter’]. We were on the same team
together. That made it a little awkward, but you don’t beg and ask
for a fight and want to get in there and then have them give you a
fight and turn it down.”

The spot came open after Bedford’s scheduled opponent, Erik Perez,
withdrew due to a staph infection. On Monday of fight week, the
promotion announced that Caraway was stepping in.

“When you’re training in a training camp, you can get nervous,”
Caraway said. “You do have bad days and your good days and you’ll
have your injuries and ups and downs and what not, and you have
time to overanalyze or to break down things too much. When you take
a fight on [short] notice, you’re kind of like, ‘What’s going on?’
and all of a sudden the nerves hit you all at once instead of kind
of slowly, gradually dissipating and kind of working themselves
out. It’s pretty much no nerves and then all of a sudden the next
thing you know, you’re standing in the hallway thinking, ‘What the
hell did I get myself into? Am I fighting right now? I was just
drinking a beer last weekend, eating a cheeseburger.’”

Caraway found a way to win, though, submitting Bedford with a
guillotine choke 4:44 into the third round. It was a welcome
victory after Caraway’s split-decision loss to Takeya
Mizugaki in March -- a bout he believes he won -- and also
after girlfriend Miesha
Tate’s tough loss to Cat Zingano
at “The Ultimate Fighter 17” Finale.

“I also wanted to erase that memory of Miesha’s fight,” Caraway
said. “That was a very upsetting fight for both of us, and I just
wanted to get back in that win column as soon as we could.”

After agreeing to take the bout, Caraway blitzed himself on his
first day in the gym. He was told overtraining was a bad idea
especially on short notice, though, and quickly scaled back and
tried to have fun with his limited preparation.

It paid off. By fight time he had his body as ready as it could be
and his mind prepped too.

“I just kept thinking that I’m going to break Johnny Bedford and
that he doesn’t belong on my level,” Caraway said. “That’s just
what you have to tell yourself every time.”